


Coming Clean

by Bulletproof_love



Series: PTSD!Mouse [3]
Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Chemistry, Confidence, Conversations, Developing Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Girls with Guns, Honesty, Love, Mental Health Issues, Personal Growth, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Relationship Discussions, Self Confidence, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Talking, Trust Issues, Truth, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 04:38:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17015889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bulletproof_love/pseuds/Bulletproof_love
Summary: Mouse comes clean to Charlie.





	Coming Clean

Charlie hated the Gang Unit and she had for as long as she could remember. They were lazy sons of bitches who couldn’t be bothered to fill out their own freaking paperwork, which made her job ten times harder. She’d returned from her break to find the stack of weapons piled up neatly on the large metal desk, along with a report detailing the seizure and very little else. She glanced at the stacks of ammo at the far end, mentally calculating the amount of hours it would take to sort through this mess. Each gun had to be logged into evidence, their individual details input into the system before she could lock them up for the night in order to start work on them first thing tomorrow morning.

She had known the instant she had laid eyes on the weapons that she wouldn’t be making it to Molly’s tonight and that stung like hell. She wondered what Mouse must think of her, making plans and then cancelling them again. She probably looked like a complete asshole, she certainly felt like one when she had texted him. She placed her palms flat upon the steel worktop before hanging her head for a moment, sucking in a deep breath in an attempt to gather the motivation to make a start on the daunting task ahead of her.

It was the low whistle that brought her attention to the lean, muscular man casually lingering in the doorway of Ballistics Lab. Those brilliant blue eyes of his fixated on the huge pile of weapons that she was standing in front of, taking in the sheer amount as he stepped into the room.

“You were not kidding about staying behind tonight huh?” Mouse murmured, his thumbs hooking on the loops of his dark jeans as he tilted his head towards her pulling a face.

Despite the situation she found herself smiling, it was something that seemed to happen a lot whenever Mouse was around. It didn’t matter how shitty her day was, this man always found a way to make her smile, whether it was a with a kind word or a terrible joke, it didn’t matter. Just being around him made her feel grounded.

“As you can see the Gang Unit are still absolute asses.” she informed him, gesturing at the table with her right hand.

“I hear it’s what happens when you join their unit.” Mouse told her as he came to stand beside her, his hands on his hips purposefully as he surveyed the workload. “The moment you cross over the threshold you instantly become an asshole.”

She could feel the heat rolling off his body as they stood together, it prickled along her skin like electricity sending a delicious current reverberating through her. She wondered if he felt it too, it if was as powerful for him as it was for her. His head tilted towards her, his stunning blue eyes meeting hers and for a moment Charlie felt like the entire world was disappeared, that there was just her and him locked in this tiny section of time and space. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to cradle his clean shaven features in her hands and press her lips to his.

“You want some help?” he asked her.

She watched as those sensual lips of his framed the words before his voice actually penetrated through to her brain.

“Haven’t you got a gathering to get to?” she reminded him about Molly’s.

Mouse shrugged his shoulders, his nimble hands already unfastening the buttons of his sleeves so that he could roll them up over his toned forearms.

“They can get by without me.” he told her frankly. “And you clearly need an assist, this will take you all night.”

That was the point she thought. Sergeant Buchanan lived to make her life as hard as possible whenever the opportunity arose, it had been over a year now and he was still finding ways to punish her. They were discreet, barbed little things but they still rankled at her, especially on a night like tonight.

“Thank you.” she said sincerely.

“No problem.” Mouse uttered, lithely slipping into the wheelie chair in front of the CPD terminal and tapping in his password. Charlie picked up the first weapon, her fingers running over the plastic of the evidence bag before she rolled her eyes at lack of detail on the evidence label.

“Beretta 92. Model looks to be 96A1.” she said into the air between them, before reaching for the box of latex gloves she kept on the examination table and tugged them on. She opened the bag carefully before removing the pistol and flicking the overhead lamp on for closer examination. Her thumb and forefingers moved to the release catches, causing the clip to drop into her open palm. “Magazine has a blue and nickle finish with a capacity for up to eighteen rounds, which means it’s from one of the less restricted states.”

She set the clip down before gradually taking the Beretta apart, the process focused and methodical as she set each piece down after carefully reviewing them.

“It’s been well maintained, someone took care to clean it regularly.”

It was the silence that drew her back to him. There was no sound of the mouse clicking, or keyboard clacking, there was only this heavy noiselessness hanging in the air. Charlie twisted her head to find Mouse’s gaze on her as his elbows came to rest on his knees, his hands clasped together as he leaned forward.

“I need to come clean about something.” he told her, his dark eyebrows furrowed as he spoke.

“Ok.” she said, peeling off the latex gloves and tossing them into the trash can along side the examination table in order to give Mouse her full attention.

“I thought you were blowing me off when you text me.” he said abruptly, running a hand through his neatly styled hair with agitation. “I thought you’d changed your mind about meeting up with me. I came down here to tell you that you didn’t have to do that, you could be straight with me...”

“And then you saw the small armory I was dealing with.” she finished, gesturing towards the table lined with guns stored away in evidence bags.

“Pretty much.” he said as he rubbed his palms over one another repeatedly. He was anxious, she could tell from the constant rhythmic motion of his hands. He doubted he was even aware that he was doing it, her father never was.

"I would never just blow you off.” she told him, making sure to meet his gaze as she spoke.

She wanted him to see the honesty of her statement, for him to understand that she would never hurt him in that way. He was worth so much more to her than that.

“Sometimes I just find stuff like that really hard to believe.” he admitted, pursing his lips together and tearing his eyes away from hers. “I have these issues...”

He trailed off, the muscles in his jaw tightening as he struggled to formulate the words.

“You’re not the only one.” she told him, swallowing back the emotion that was starting to ball up in the center of her chest. “The important thing is that we don’t let them ruin something good right?”

The left side of his mouth quirked up into that side smile of his, the light was coming back into his eyes as he met her earnest gaze.

“Right.” he told her, nodding his agreement. “Right.”


End file.
